HCL

For more in-depth information on HCL, please visit the official wiki page:HCL Wiki.

The Human Cockfighting League (or HCL) is an American-based mixed martial arts promotion that aired on IRM. The first ever show, HCL 1: The First Mistake, took place on May 19, 2012. The final HCL show, HCL 54: Floating In Man Broth, took place on July 31, 2016, but never aired. The final show to have aired on IRM was HCL 53: Fine Meaty Paste, on June 26, 2016.

Shows are presented using UFC Undisputed 3 for the Xbox 360, with created fighters that have been downloaded from the THQ servers, or created manually with heavy use of the Random button.

All fights were CPU vs CPU and played using Event Mode. Events were pre-produced, and broadcast with live commentary from Leighton Cockburn (Bryan) and Randy Rosenlodge (Fitz).

Contents

History

In 2012, one of the first ever staples of IRM was created, with the Human Cockfighting League. HCL was a Tupelo, Mississippi based mixed martial arts promotion owned by Senator John McCain that ran its first show on May 19, 2012. The first ever show was streamed live on Twitch, with all production cues (music, graphics, etc) attempted to be run live.

It was a disaster. Like... even for HCL standards. In fact, the resulting video stream was so choppy it was not salvaged.

One month later, HCL 2: Again... Why? took place in Tupelo on June 10, 2012. From a production standpoint, this was the first event that was pre-recorded and produced and with live commentary broadcasts. This was the method going forward for the remaining HCL shows.

The initial HCL roster comprised of 36 fighters, split evenly into 3 weight classes: Heavyweight, Light heavyweight, and Welterweight. After the first three shows, all fighters were showcased, and the winners, along with two selected fighters from each division, were put into 8-man tournaments in each weight class, to crown HCL's first ever champions. All three champions were crowned at HCL 8: A Gross Display of Moderately Unnecessary Violence on September 2, 2012. HCL's first champions on this night were Leo Serengeti (heavyweight), Teddy Grabowski (light heavyweight), and Dwayne De Recha (welterweight).

On November 4, 2012, HCL introduced a fourth weight class (middleweight), with 16 fighters debuting at HCL 11: Malcolm in the Middleweights in the first round of a championship tournament that culminated at HCL 17: Just Bleed Guy, on March 10, 2013. In the main event, Gustaf "The Gooz" Ackerman won the first ever HCL Middleweight Championship.

Starting in April 2013, with HCL 19, events were run monthly. Each show was main evented by a championship title fight, which rotated among the four divisions every show.

In April 2015, HCL introduced the concept of the "championship contender tournament", where the winner was awarded a championship title fight. The first one took place on HCL 40 with two heavyweight semifinals. The winners met in the finals on HCL 43, with the winner receiving the title fight at HCL 46. This would be the format going forward, as each show would still be headlined by a title fight. However, the co-main event was the contender tournament final of a different weight class, and the semifinals of a third different tournament also took place on the show.

The last HCL show aired on June 26 2016, and was headlined by Patrick Melvin winning the HCL Middleweight Championship from Kenny "Slim" Lindley. The next show, HCL 54, took place on July 31, 2016. At present time, the event never was aired, but it was determined after that show that it would be HCL's last.

HCL events

In total, HCL ran 56 events. This includes the 54 "numbered" shows, as well as two additional shows that served as the finale of the two seasons of the Top Cock reality show.

Top Cock

The reality show Top Cock was a joint venture between IRM and HVF, and lasted for two seasons, introducing many new fighters to HCL. The series pitted eight fighters looking for an HCL contract against one another in a single elimination tournament, while being forced to live together in a house and compete in stupid challenges.

Two existing HCL fighters were named as captains, and drafted the fighters to make two teams of four. HVF aired the house aspect of the competition, using The Sims to recreate the insanity. Each episode ended with that week's fight, pitting one fighter from each team against each other, with the winning team selecting the next week's fight until the semifinals.

Each season culminated with a six-fight event, with the tournament final as the main event. Additionally, the remaining six fighters were also paired up on the show in three other fights. The Season 1 finale also saw the two coaches, Stuart Peppers and Wes Blackwell, meet in the co-main event. This did not occur in Season 2, as the two coaches were in different weight classes.